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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Insider, post: 2297197, member: 24314&quot;]Not entirely true.&nbsp; Luster is the reflection of light from a surface.&nbsp; Just about everything (except black holes <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie1" alt=":)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /> has SOME TYPE of luster.&nbsp; The black keys on my keyboard as I write this have luster.&nbsp; The paper clip under the lamp on my desk has luster.&nbsp; When I look into a mirror and move my gray hair aside there is luster on my greasy forehead! </p><p><br /></p><p>Now to the point.&nbsp; Metal ingots have luster, the strip has luster, the blank has luster, the planchet has luster, the struck coin has luster.&nbsp; When I clean it, polish it, or remove black tarnish from an area there is still some type of luster reflecting from the surface.&nbsp; The key here is that the luster looks different in each case!&nbsp; Therefore, the part of a struck coin that was touched by the die has one type of luster, while weakly struck areas that did not touch the dies (and the inside of the planchet striations we have been discussing)&nbsp; have a different appearance to their original luster.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>How to detect the many different &quot;looks&quot; on a coin&#039;s surface is one of the most important lessons to teach beginners about grading.&nbsp; Surface alterations (no matter what the cause) do not look like original mint luster.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Let me pick one more &quot;nit.&quot;&nbsp; Metal flowing over a fresh, new die when a coin is struck does not give the coin its mint luster.&nbsp; The struck coin has it anyway - it&#039;s made of metal.</p><p><br /></p><p>As more coins are struck, the die becomes worn microscopic grooves are scoured into its surface.&nbsp; Now the surface of the struck coin shows this as more pronounced radial flow lines.&nbsp; A coin struck from these dies has luster also but that luster looks different from a coin made with a fresh die.&nbsp; As you have probably written many times before... these coins have the &quot;cartwheel&quot; luster we all admire.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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